...and the Bond rebrand is only for the Fri-Sun. Interesting to see what it gets in its first full week.

Wonder if they'll bring it back for another month next year before the contract ends?

1985 was when BBC1's comeback truly started. It was a great year for Ronnie Barker as The Two Ronnies and Open All Hours were flying high in the ratings, it was a great year for Roy Clarke and Summer Wine and Open All Hours were two of the biggest sitcom hits of the year. And it was a good year for Michael Grade as BBC1 had a great Autumn & Christmas. Telly Addicts started in 1985 and got 15m for the Christmas edition. Autumn Sundays on BBC1 were very popular too with Open All Hours, Howard's Way, In Sickness & In Health and Whicker's World pulling in big numbers. And as you rightly say Only Fools was really catching on by then too. It was a also a great period for sitcoms on BBC1. Throw in Just Good Friends, Ever Decreasing Circles, Hi-De-Hi and 'Allo, 'Allo and BBC1 was in a very strong position.

Mary Poppins in 1984 is impressive considering how it would have been 20 years old at the time, was it a premiere or a repeat? I'm guessing premiere.

Interesting that Raiders premiered on ITV, three years after its release for television is impressive for back in the 80s, when did the likes of Bond and Star Wars get their terrestrial debuts?

I'm pretty sure that Dr No first appeared on ITV round about 1974 (ie when it was 12 years old) and Star Wars was first shown, again on ITV, in 1982. Both got TV Times covers, huge coverage in the wider press and giant ratings. It was not just that then there were only three terrestrial channels, and most did not have VCRs - there was no Sky or other dedicated movie channel, next to no rental market (it was just coming in circa 1980 so Star Wars did not do quite as well as Bond), no Netflix/Lovefilm, and of course next to no video games or home PCs to play with either. Truly a different world!

I really do miss what I used to call "the bathtime sitcom", a staple in the 7.15pm Sunday night slot on BBC1 basically all year round. Even ITV managed to knock out a few competing sitcoms in that slot in between the gameshows.

In a relentless rotation you would get OFAH, LOTSW, Ever Decreasing Circles, Open All Hours - breathtaking stuff, and massive hits the lot of them.

I guess it was Corrie, eventually, that killed it off - they dropped a soap into the schedules, BBC1 put up a bit of a fight with Antiques Roadshow promoted from teatime, where it has remained to this day as an anti-ITV LE spoiler, but that slot has never really recovered apart from the SCD Results show.

I do long to see them try a decent sitcom there.

Sigh - I long to see them try a decent sitcom full stop...

Didn't The Wizard of Oz (1939) only get its BBC1 Christmas Day premiere in the late 1970s?

More recently, ET must have taken 10 years to land on BBC1 (notably, this was in the Sky Movies era, but the BBC still got not only the first UK showing, but the first showing on TV anywhere in the world!) - it got 17.9m viewers in the 3.10pm slot whatever year it was (early 90s??)

October 1975, VCRs barely existed outside of laboratories, even the richest person in Britain couldn't have more than three channels, so I'm not surprised Dr No achieved 25 million viewers. Also this was the start of a very lucrative relationship between Bond and ITV that saw the first five films pull in 23 million viewers for the premieres.

1 CELEBRITY JUICE (SERIES 8) (THU 2204) ITV2 2.15
2 XTRA FACTOR RESULT (SUN 2059) ITV2 2.13

2010's final rating (final show):

1 XTRA FACTOR RESULT (SUN 2131) ITV2 2.54

2009:

1 XTRA FACTOR RESULT (SUN 2127) ITV2 2.15

So it's the third highest rated episode of Xtra Factor ever

I'm sure The Wizard of Oz would have been shown on television a lot earlier than the 1970s, you might be thinking of The Sound of Music.

Im sure E.T. was premiered in 1990,it was up against Moonraker on ITV.That Mary Poppins showing in 1984 was the premiere,again,it was up against a Bond film,The Man With The Golden Gun.Bit of a longshot but does anyone know what the original Star Wars got on it's premiere in 1982 ?? I'm always under the impression that they've never done very well ratings wise apart from Return Of The Jedi which got something like 10 million on it's premiere on Boxing Day afternoon 1989

E.T. did indeed premiere in 1990. I remember that Christmas Day vividly as Bruce Forsyth's Generation Game had a triumphant return that year and got a Christmas Day special and there was the execrable Only Fools special Rodney Come Home. A little addendum to that Generation Game story. It returned on Friday nights and was a big hit. Bruce made a big noise about putting it back on Saturdays and it could take on Blind Date. In 1991 they did just that and Blind Date wiped the floor with it. It got 10m on a Saturday and was seen as a failure. Hmmm. Ring any bells?

Anyway later that Autumn on BBC1 they introduced a Saturday night show with little fanfare and hardly mentioned it. Something called Noel's House Party.

Movie premieres were huge in the 70s and 80s with no such thing as renting movies or dedicated movie channels. Also it used to be 10 years before a movie could be shown on terrestrial TV, this went down to 5 years, then 3 and I think it's at 2 years now. Also some studios didn't want their movies on TV at all and finally said yes to some in the 80s. Disney was a perfect example with their animated classics like Bambi, Dumbo, Pinocchio etc.Those were finally shown in the 80s by ITV. The package was offered to the BBC first but they dithered and ITV bought them.

In the 70s the movie premieres were a big part of BBC1's Christmas schedules. Bill Cotton said two questions he always got around Christmas were who was going to do the Morecambe & Wise Show and what movies would BBC1 be showing. Gone With The Wind got its premiere in the 70s and that was a very big deal.

Movie premieres used to be a big thing through the year and ITV always had some very good movie deals. BBC1 have more recently saved them for Christmas and they have been more effective there than some Autumn premieres on ITV.

yes that is a bit of a spoiler move by ITV.

looking at those officials, Red Dwarf continues to do well for Dave.

The Gen Game stayed on Saturdays though, as I recall - it didn't return to Fridays? IIRC, it was getting about 9-10m against 12-13m for Blind Date, so not a wiping the floor with at all, but I don't think it actually did much better than 10m on Fridays anyway, so it was hardly worth moving it back. It was the Christmas special, which got 17m, which stood out like a sore thumb - but that was the high point for the revitalised show. It was when House Party went later and head to head with Blind Date that the latter started coming off worst.



No, it was Gone With The Wind. Also a 1939 movie, hence me getting them mixed up.

Is it a bit sad that I still haven't completely given up hope on Noel's House Party, with Noel, actually returning to Saturday nights on BBC1?

13 years on...





I think we can write off any more Jim'll Fix It with Shane Richie though!

as far as the Space Jump goes, im far more interested in seeing the break down of YouTubes ratings

8 million according to the Guardian.

They should bring back Mr Blobby, I am sure he would be excellent on Strictly.

Well isn't it a coincidence DOND is made at the BBC and Noel has been rumoured to be in talks to make a comeback on BBC One as DOND seems to be running out of steam. It wouldn't surprise me if Noel decides to have one last go at a Saturday night show before he retires.

Yes, an entire generation grew up wih Fix It and it became iconic. And we end up with a population wondering how they can hide/get rid of their Fix It medals.

The Generation Game was on Fridays at 8pm in 1990. The Noel Edmonds Saturday Roadshow was on Saturdays.

http://www.tv-ark.org.uk/mivana/medi...t1311&type=mp4

In those days if you lost your timeslot you lost, even though 10m is a good figure. They moved the revived Gen Game to Saturdays to beat Blind Date. It didn't. Not even once. During the second series House Party was unstoppable and beat Blind Date several times in a head to head.

1 RED DWARF (THU 2101) 1,976
2 RED DWARF (THU 2340) 598
3 RED DWARF (SAT 2200) 592
4 RED DWARF (THU 2143) 541
5 QI XL (TUE 2202) 417
6 RUSSELL HOWARD'S GOOD NEWS (WED 2102) 385
7 NOT GOING OUT (FRI 2102) 377
8 NOT GOING OUT (FRI 2141) 375
9 QI XL (TUE 2103) 339
10 HAVE I GOT A BIT MORE NEWS FOR YOU (MON 2201) 331

That is quite a gap between 1 & 2

Number 1 is the first showing on Thursday, number 2 is the repeat at 11.40pm.

Is it now?

Still a gap between 1 & 3

Still waiting for the full roundup

I sound like Jahmene off the X Factor laughing after every sentence

Regarding BBC3, Cuckoo's still doing OK, it's at #2 for w/e 7th October, but it'll be a lot lower when last week's data is released next Monday.

I won't give up hope of sitcoms returning to that slot, one day.

ITV will have to keep repeating to themselves that The X Factor is still rating well because it seems like bad news after bad news about the show. The timeshift looks low, especially when compared to Strictly Come Dancing and Downton Abbey.

Shocking waste of custard, too.